ABOUT AFTN

Away From The Numbers (AFTN) started life as a printed football fanzine in Scotland in 1989, growing to be a footballing presence on both sides of the Atlantic.

From those early days churning out a couple of hundred photocopied issues in a bedroom in Fife, AFTN has grown to become two websites, two blogs and a podcast covering the game in both Scotland and Canada.

The original fanzine won many plaudits and was described by the Daily Sport as “the best fanzine we’ve seen so far”, awarding us the maximum 30/30 score. Another publication described our infamous cartoons as “surreal comic brilliance” and we were regularly featured on TV, with appearances on the BBC panel show “They Think It’s All Over” and Sky Sport’s “Soccer AM”, amongst others.

AFTN finally embraced the online digital age in December 2003 becoming the main unofficial website, forum and web presence dedicated to East Fife Football Club. Check us out on the web at: www.aftn.co.uk.

Times change and circumstances change, and AFTN went global in 2009, launching a blog in Canada in March of that year dedicated to covering Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club at all levels from their Residency teams to the MLS first team. Add in features on the local soccer scene in British Columbia, including the college game, and the Canadian national teams, and we’re busy guys!

Branded AFTN Canada, the site has grown each year since then, much like the Whitecaps themselves, to become the prime non mainstream source for Whitecaps news and chatter out there.

The AFTN Canada blog made the move onto Canadian Soccer News in December 2011, taking our brand of news and commentary to a bigger Canadanwide audience and soon becoming a key component to the overall site. An AFTN podcast was added to the mix in April 2013 and this website, launched on March 1st 2015, is the latest part our progression.

Coming out of that gamechanging UK fanzine scene of the 80s and 90s shapes what AFTN is all about. We want to bring you all the latest news and interviews, along with comment and opinion on what is happening in the football world, and a look back at our teams’ rich histories. But we also want to have a laugh at the game and those who are part of it. That means humour, nonsense, lighthearted pieces, cartoons and things that may very well annoy and piss people off. That’s what we’re here for. If you don’t like that style, then kindly move on!

For every reader and every listener, old and new, that have been part of our journey so far, we thank you all. We hope to continue to entertain and inform you for many more years to come, keeping growing and coming up with new ideas and features.